On my way back, I held the details of the newly assigned squad mbers in my hands, but my gaze was fixed on the horizon. My palms were sweating, and my heart rate was high. It was not because of the new squad mbers. All my thoughts were occupied by the reminder Lieutenant Cicero had given about my class trial.
I finally had to admit sothing to myself. I could no longer postpone my class trial, sothing I had been subconsciously happy to delay.
Initiating the trial felt like a major decision, one that would shape my future. Combined with the fact that I had a combat focused class, it ant my class trial would involve combat. And this would be my first fight since the beast tide.
I was not sure if I was ready for that. Even now, the thought of stepping into another battle made my chest tighten.
And it was not as if class trials were consequence free. Failing a trial could lead to widely varied outcos. At the earliest stages, those consequences were not severe, but even at the Initiate level, the results could differ greatly.
At best, a poor performance might result in a weaker class. At worst, it could permanently limit future progression. Failing more than three class trials could lock soone out of advancing to the Initiate tier entirely.
The risk was real.
But even with all that fear weighing on , I knew I could not postpone it any longer.
Not only would completing the trial provide a much-needed increase to my attributes, but if I perford well, I might gain a skill upgrade or even unlock a new one. Staying stagnant would only make things worse.
It had also been more than three months since I had last cultivated my mana. A class upgrade would allow to resu mana cultivation again.
I returned to my room and closed the door behind .
The small space felt quiet, isolated from the noise of the fort. I set my papers aside and sat down on the floor, crossing my legs into a lotus position, mana crystals resting in both of my hands.
I took a slow breath.
Then another.
Closing my eyes, it took a few minutes to push away the thoughts crowding my mind. Once I felt ready for the class trial, I focused on my temples and opened my class interface.
Initiate Class Trial Available
Find a secure location to undergo your class trial. Any excess experience will be assigned to your class level after completing the trial.
I read it twice. I steadied myself and ntally selected the option to initiate the trial.
Current Novice Class: [Junior Officer (Cadet)]
Direct Upgrade Available:
Initiate Class → [Field Sergeant]
All skills at Uncommon tier detected. Potential class evolution condition t.
Warning: Rarity increase detected.
Possible evolved class: [Tactical Leader]
Selecting an evolved class trial will increase trial difficulty. Please select a class trial.
Note: Final class outco may change based on trial performance.
I was surprised when I realized my class rarity had increased.
I had read about it before. It was rare, but such cases did exist. I did not know that for my class, the only requirent to access an evolved class trial was to raise my skills to the Uncommon tier.
It was difficult to predict what would lead to class evolution. It depended heavily on the class itself and the skills one possessed. Still, this was an opportunity. If soone successfully completed a higher difficulty class trial and obtained an evolved class, each level afterward would grant greater attribute gains than normal.
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Walking away from the chance to gain extra stats at every level was not sothing I was going to do.
I selected the class trial for [Tactical Leader] without a second thought.
The mont I confird it, I was pulled into my ntal space. White stretched in every direction, no matter how far I looked. I stood alone in a vast, empty field.
Then, slowly, the scenery began to change.
At first, it felt like standing in a void. Then weight returned to my feet. The emptiness hardened, turning into solid ground beneath . I felt as if I had been transferred directly onto a battlefield.
As the white faded, I found myself surrounded by nine n.
One of them stepped forward and saluted.
I understood imdiately.
I would be leading them in this trial.
None of them had any discernible features. Their faces were indistinct, almost unfinished, and their bodies were ford of white mana. In my mind, I started calling them mana soldiers.
When I activated [Perceptive Instinct (UC)], I could feel their strength clearly.
Tier Two.
All of them.
We were equipped uniformly. Armor, shields, and spears, all of it ford from the sa white mana as the soldiers themselves.
I positioned myself slightly toward the rear as the environnt fully stabilized.
That was when my heart rate spiked.
The air felt wrong.
Visibility dropped, shadows stretching unnaturally across the field. For a mont, it felt exactly like standing on the platform during the final monts of the beast tide. The sa pressure. The sa suffocating stillness.
Then new shapes ford.
Ten of them.
Low, feline silhouettes erged from the haze, muscles coiled, eyes faintly glowing. They surrounded us from every direction, boxing us in.
Shadow Cats.
My mind went blank.
I stood there, staring at them. I did not issue a command. I did not call a formation. I did nothing.
Without giving a chance to get my bearings, one of them lunged.
It went straight for .
I reacted too late.
I raised my shield, but my hesitation had already cost . The impact slamd into my chest, knocking the air from my lungs. Pain flared as I staggered backward, my vision blurring for a mont.
That impact did sothing important.
It reminded that this was a trial.
I could not die here.
And more than that, this was the mont I had been preparing for.
I checked my mana instinctively.
MP: 1500 / 1581
Fully restored at the start of the trial.
I drew on the thod Lieutenant Cicero had drilled into earlier that day. I infused mana into my voice, forcing it steady despite my racing heartbeat.
“Scattered agile formation!” I shouted.
It was the sa formation we had used against Shadow Cats during the beast tide. Three fighters in front, two on each flank, and three in the rear, including myself.
As my voice carried, I continued, letting the mana reinforce every word.
“This is our chance to prove ourselves,” I said. “These are nothing but beasts hiding in shadow. Let’s crush them so completely that they never stand before us again.”
I had started speaking mostly to sort out my own emotions, but halfway through I realized sothing. Speaking with emotion was not disrupting my command. It was helping. It sharpened it.
The mana soldiers around straightened. Their movents beca cleaner, more precise, as if my intent had reached them directly.
The fight erupted imdiately.
And the problems appeared just as quickly.
But my earlier hesitation had already caused injuries among the soldiers. Two soldiers were injured. One on the front line and one on the right flank began moving slower than the others. I could not see them directly while facing the Shadow Cats in front of .
But I did not need to.
I had trained for this. I had asked Lieutenant Cicero for help, and every day, for at least an hour, I trained to avoid repeating the mistake that had cost Jack his life.
I layered my skills together.
[Perceptive Instinct (UC)] gave the positions of both the enemy and my squadmates.
[Triage Ward (UC)] fed the physical condition of my squadmates. Surprisingly, it worked even on the mana soldiers in the trial.
[Mana Manipulation (UC)] allowed to sense movent and fluctuations in mana.
At the sa ti, [Applied Military Theory (UC)] and [mory Recall (UC)] worked together, processing information and matching it to practiced responses.
Even then, it was overwhelming.
Handling nine people at once pushed to my limits. Any more, and I would have collapsed because of the cognitive overload.
Still, it was enough.
“Right center.”
“Right, sixty degrees.”
“Front center.”
Issuing commands without nas felt unnatural, yet the soldiers responded instantly. It was as if they were connected to my intent rather than my words.
I fought as well.
Using [Flowing Spear Style (UC)], [Unbroken Stride (UC)], and carefully controlled bursts of [Mana Reinforcent (UC)], I held my position and prevented breakthroughs.
After several exchanges, I predicted a Shadow Cat’s movent and brought my spear down where it would land.
The blade pierced its abdon.
“Front, center!” I shouted, still commanding the frontline soldiers as the creature in front of let out a shriek and died while trying to retreat.
With one threat removed, the pressure eased slightly.
I shifted more of my focus outward, supporting the rear and flanks with positioning calls and timing adjustnts.
Ten minutes later, the battlefield finally fell silent.
All the Shadow Cats were gone.
I stood there, breathing heavily, waiting for sothing else to appear.
Instead, everything dissolved.
The ground faded. The soldiers vanished. The battlefield unraveled into white once more.
Synergy detected between [mory Recall (UC)] and [Applied Military Theory (UC)]. New Class Skill available.
Higher-than-expected performance detected. High synergy between multiple skills confird. Class rarity increased.
Class Available: [Battlefield Coordinator]
I stared at the words, my chest still rising and falling.
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